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| I'm not really a beginner as I practiced yoga several years ago. I practiced on my own using the book "Yoga for You" by Indra Devi. I never came though to make the headstand without support. I always made it in a corner, I put one leg as high as possible against the corner wall then pushed with the other leg to get into the position.
My current apartment doesn't have a corner I can use. Moreover, I want to do it right this time. I tried to do it how it's described, against the wall first. The problem is, as I walk towards the head, my buttocks are supposed to come straight with the back and against the wall but they just don't, they are still far away! It feels like my legs are too short and I can't walk further on my very tiptoes. I cannot then lift the legs and get into the position because it's too hard. I tried to press more on the shoulders and extend my back, not any better. My partner watched the video and doesn't see anything wrong. I don't have bending problems or anatomically short legs. What could be wrong? Did anyone have a problem with "short legs"?
Edited by tmjulia 2009-09-12 3:24 PM
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Member
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| Its not likely to be short legs! Though that does conjure some interesting images 
It could be several things, probably most likely is a lack of core strength to give you the lift you need to get your legs up without 'throwing' them up (which is what people tend to do against walls/corners). It could be that you're not pressing down enough through your forearms as you walk your toes in. It could be that your hips are too tight to let you walk in far enough to shift the balance onto your arms, or a combination of factors.
The important thing is that whatever it is, you can get over it. Its not that you have short legs and will never do a headstand. Just persist. 'Practice and all is coming'
Its really worth enrolling in a class where an experienced teacher can help you with these things. |
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| Try facing the wall instead.
Start on your kness with your back towards the wall...your toes touching the wall,place your forearms on the floor so the your elbows are ver close in front of your knees(elbows shoulder with apart)interlace fingers,place head on floor(hands are around back of head).
Come up on your toes....bum up....then step your feet up on to the wall,with your feet only as high as your bum and straighten legs.
You now should be in an upsidedown L shape....with your back nice and upright and your legs parallel to the floor.
If you are balanced you should now be able to bring one knee then the other towards your chest...comming to a bent leg,free standing head stand.....SLOWLY....then only start to extend legs up once you are fully stable and balanced.
allways SLOWLY....any rushing,kicking,jerking,flinging will likly end in falling.
Going to a good teacher will help most of all.
Alison |
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| Hello Julia,
Rather than prattle on about what might be your condition - which would be nearly impossible since a) I have not seen you and b) you have not mentioned anything about you or your life or your practice - I'll opt to respond to you this way.
There are requisite actions to be cultivated in the student's body before directing them to a full sirsasana. Some students have some of the actions and they are obviously directed to finish the requisites or preparatory work. Others have none of these actions and need to be directed to the beginning. These things are all assessed by the trained eye of a skilled yoga teacher. A book can not give you the feedback craved by the individuality of your mind, your body, and your soul.
It is so fascinating how "involved" we get with the anatomical structure, the overdevelopment of core musculature, and the anal retentive nature (or dogma, if you will) of coming up into the pose in a specific way. There are some ways with integrity and some without. There are some ways that are safe and others that are less so. However the fecund part of the pose is being in the pose and these days, after ten years of teaching, I tend to work with students to get them into the poses so that they can harvest the fruits. You do not need a six-pack to come into the pose and most bipeds have strong enough core muscles or they'd fold over in a pile at midday.
That is NOT to say "discontinue working on musculo-skeltal weakness" but rather to say "do not get hung up spending your life on those having missed the pose altogether.
Please consider working with a teacher so that you develop the contraction of the serratus anterior crucial to protecting the shoulder joint, can move the spine into the body, and have the ability to support your body weight on the forearms so that your cervical spine is not damaged either in the moment or over time..
gordon
Edited by purnayoga 2009-09-15 5:55 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 436
Location: Washington DC | Namaste! Sirsasana or head stand is considered as the king of all Asanas. It is not very difficult to do this pose but many times people injured their neck (cervical spine) while start this pose without any expert’s practical guidance. I wish you all the best |
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| Reporting the result...
I've learned how to do a headstand first again a couch back, then against a chair back which are slightly curvy. My buttocks simply will not go against any flat surface (given I'm rather skinny). When I'm in the position, I'm almost not touching the chair, because the main support is in the shoulders. I thought (2-3 months ago) that I do it so perfectly, so I would be able to do it without any support. However, when going into the position without support, it feels I don't have enough time to straighten my legs before I lose balance.
Edited by tmjulia 2010-01-05 7:06 PM
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Member
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Location: boston | I agree with Veteran. Its a king of all asanas and its not very hard to learn..Here is my tip
a. First warm up your body with any exercise of your choice for ten minutes.
b. Then come near a wall and kneel on the mat facing the wall. Now clasp your fingers and keep it in front of you around 6 inches away from the wall, set the forearm also on the mat,now set the crown of your head on the floor and snuggle the back of your head against the clasped hands. Now start clicking your feet all the way up till your feet touches the wall behind you and that's it.
c. You might fall again and again during the few initial chances. So keep practicing just for five minutes every day you will get your body upside down in 10-15 days. As a beginner, stay in this posture for 5 seconds and gradually add 5 to 10 seconds to your stay every day.
Best of luck
Gauri |
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| You say you fall when you straighten your legs. Don't straighten your legs then  You will still get the benefits of being in an inversion and you will slowly begin to develop whatever it is you need to get into the pose. |
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Extreme Veteran
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| You should never do a headstand against a wall! It will restrict you. You must learn first how to fall before doing a headstand. The process of learning how to do a headstand is far more important. With a wall the spine becomes compressed.Learn slowly slowly each and every detail of the very beginnings of a headstand (even the process of putting your head on the floor), noticing your breathing very clearly and not doing anything that makes you hold your breath even if it s a milisecond, with lots of emphasis on counter movements and learning to fall especially, and you will wonder why you struggled with it at all. |
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Expert Yogi
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| vibes - there are definitely two schools of thought on this and you and I are clearly in the different schools. Headstand can be taught and learned very well at a wall without restrictions. The wall helps remove the fear that often comes with learning this pose, particularly for people who may not have a good sense of where their body is in space. And some students may have conditions or injuries that mean they should not be doing a lot of falling.
I will say though, that once the student is able to move away from the wall, going back to the wall can feel restricted. |
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Extreme Veteran
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| Interesting points tourist! Thanks. Generally with a wall, one puts their head on the floor and brings their legs up to the wall without the body adapting. This also often occurs without a wall too. The main part of learning a headstand is the conquering of the fear of falling. Because you will never comfortably go into headstand with even the slightest bit of fear. That is why I said its important to learn to fall. Just like a baby learning to walk or stand on his/her feet must learn to fall. So it becomes a gradual learning process. If a baby is forced to stand without his/her body adapting and without learning how to fall, they will always have a fear, which will make standing uncomfortable,which inturn strains muscles and breathing and in the case of headstand compresses vertabrae. > In the case of injuries its especially important to learn to fall, so that he/she isnt tense when coming out of the headstand. Also ease of reverseability from headstand is essential. Infact for any posture to be good the way one reverses out of and the process of moving into it is so important.
The process of learning how to learn to do a headstand is so much more beneficial than the headstand itself. Just throwing your legs onto a wall is not giving you the full massive range of benefits that one can get. |
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Expert Yogi
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| vibes - I have a student right now who could use some of your advice for learning to be calm in learning headstand. He grimaces and his face goes very red - NOT what a teacher wants to see in anyone's headstand!  I tell him to not go up until he can do it without the grimace, but sadly he is male and does not always listen to me...  |
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Veteran
Posts: 109
Location: Singapore | Headstand NOT against a wall!!!!
Then it would be easier to injure the NECK!!!!
May be vibes, I am not so knowledgeable like you. But cannot be agreeing with this...I am sorry.
Namaste
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
| Yes-never headstand with a wall. Put it this way.Force a baby to stand against a wall and hold him their, when he is not ready to. Or allow him to slowly learn to stand through experience,adapting,sensory motor learning and developing. |
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Extreme Veteran
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| Lol-tourist. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 436
Location: Washington DC | Headstand without support against the wall is a good idea for young people only (that I think) not for older people, who come to practice yoga not gymnastics. Headstand against the wall is always considered as a safe method to learn headstand for the people, who are heavy weight, not flexible, away from exercises and people over 35 – 40 yrs. This is my idea that I follow and I have been doing this on the way of yoga teaching from last 30 years. However, I am ready to learn things from people (yoga teachers) here always, haha.
Thanks
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Veteran
Posts: 109
Location: Singapore | Wow!
What great pic. of Pincha Mayurasana
I like it sir.
Thanks |
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| Ah man Tonmoy--the wallless headstand is my favorite party trick--everybody is amazed a big old guy like me can do it--I love doing it in the elevator at my office--the door opens am I'm standing on my head--surprize! |
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Extreme Veteran
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| Tonmoy-Headstand without a wall is absoloutely fine for the elderly as long as emphasis is on the process and not the end result. I know a 68 year old man who with no headstand experience got taught by my teacher how to do it for the first time over a year ago now. He is no longer on the blood pressure regulating tablets he used to take. Who ever considers the wall a safe way of doing a headstand us not seeing the complete picture. But at the end of the day we only know what we know,so we have to stick with that. |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Washington DC | Bruce - 2010-01-14 9:53 AM
Ah man Tonmoy--the wallless headstand is my favorite party trick--everybody is amazed a big old guy like me can do it--I love doing it in the elevator at my office--the door opens am I'm standing on my head--surprize!
You are The Great Yoga master Bruce, you can do it, as you have been doing it since 20 years may be. But if anybody wants to start at your age then I would definitely guide him against a wall. Thats I wanted to tell...
Thanks for your comment |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Washington DC | vibes - 2010-01-14 10:48 AM
Tonmoy-Headstand without a wall is absoloutely fine for the elderly as long as emphasis is on the process and not the end result. I know a 68 year old man who with no headstand experience got taught by my teacher how to do it for the first time over a year ago now. He is no longer on the blood pressure regulating tablets he used to take. Who ever considers the wall a safe way of doing a headstand us not seeing the complete picture. But at the end of the day we only know what we know,so we have to stick with that.
vibes, I appreciate your thoughts and ideas about headstand. The example you have stated about a 68 years old man and how he was guided by your respected teacher is really wonderful. But as a teacher may be I am not so strong to let my beginners students start headstand without support of a wall. However, after a few weeks they find the way to do this pose without wall. Thanks for sharing vibes |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
| They will find the way to do a wallless headstand even better if they start without a wall, as they are missing a huge part of the benefits in the process of learning to lengthen the spine rather than compress it. |
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| @vibes
Your point may be well taken but the rationalization of it - spinal compression specifically due to the use of a wall in the pose - needs a bit more detail in order to chat about it further.
gordon |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 574
| Good point gordon. To do a headstand safely and receive benefits wohout injuries,its important to move with the whole self & body. Sensing and feeling and observing your sensing and feeling into where you are comfortable in the posture. You have to go through a process of exploration to improve. If just putting head near a wall or even without a wall and throwing your legs up, you wont be able to feel the very beginning of a bloodrush or nausea. If you go through the movements extremely slowly to get into a headstand including the very beginning of just moving with the whole of your body to put the head on the floor, it gives you a chance to feel the very beginning of nausea or discomfort such as bloodrushing to the head.So you can use time to measure and increase time to rest..
There should be much emphasis on slow movements to soften the muscles of the neck and lengthen them.Also its necessary for the spine and to be soft.
Falling should also be learnt. It is neccessary to stand on your head, as a fall could severely injure you. It should be done so falling is light, simple and comfortable.Then there isnt any fear of standing on the head and crazy movements arent made. |
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| Wow!
Thanks |
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getting into headstand and "short legs"
